Dartmouth resident curates exhibition of photographs

Wednesday

NEW BEDFORD — Dartmouth resident Sally Sapienza has curated an exhibition of photographs made of pencil drawings done in Fayal in 1843-1844.

NEW BEDFORD — Dartmouth resident Sally Sapienza has curated an exhibition of photographs made of pencil drawings done in Fayal in 1843-1844.

The show will run from June 4 to July 1 at Casa de Saudade Library, New Bedford, and is open during all library hours. A program introducing the exhibition will be held on June 10 at 7 p.m., in celebration of the Day of Portugual.

The artist, Samuel Longfellow, younger brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived with the American Consul, Charles Dabney, and tutored his children. He often took them on walks around the island, and sketched.

All the drawings came from one sketchbook he filled with images of the bay of Horta, houses, churches, streetscapes, the countryside and residents. The sketchbook is held in the collection of the Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge, Mass.

This exhibition is the second in a series showing Mr. Longfellow's work recording Fayal and Pico. The first, initially shown at Casa in 2002, also hung at Bristol Community College, and later traveled to Horta, Fayal in 2006.

The photographs were displayed at the Nucleo Cultural da Horta in conjunction with the celebration of and symposium on the 200th anniversary of the American Consulate in the Azores. That show focused on his drawings of the more well-known structures found on the islands. Visitors both in New Bedford and Horta were struck by how little has changed in the look of the islands.

The upcoming exhibition will focus on his more intimate views of the small chapels found around Horta. They were a fitting subject, as Longfellow went on to study at the Harvard Divinity School, and became a Unitarian minister and writer of hymns. His first parish was in Fall River.

Excerpts from his letters home to family and friends will accompany the photographs, giving the viewer a better sense of the man, and his experiences while in Fayal.

The photographs were taken by David Bohl of Hull and the exhibition was supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Casa de Saudade is located at 58 Crapo St, New Bedford.

Call Judy Downey at (508) 991-6218 for further information.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.